Surgery for Ashlynne

Ashlynne has a nack for getting strep throat way too often. Over the last about 6 months she's had it 5 times, the last 3 were within 2 1/2 months of eachother and the last 2 were 13 days apart. It was decided that it was time to see the ENT about the problem. I took her in two weeks ago and it was easily decided that it was time for her to make a visit to the operating room. The surgery was scheduled for a week and a half later. Last Friday we got up early and were at the hospital at 6am. Ashlynne had her tonsils and adnoids removed and a short time later we were back with her. Dr. Ventura is amazing, he had her in and out and she did wonderful. He said that her tonsils were quite big and not just that but they were long as well, he also said that her adnoids were the size of one of her tonsils. He said she should even be able to breathe better now that they've been removed. She was such a trooper, a little nervous about it before-hand but not too bad. She did so good afterwards as well. She had a hard time on Friday but that's to be expected on the day of surgery. Saturday she was doing so well she didn't even want her pain meds. It's been slow going since but she is eating so much better and is going back to school tomorrow. What an amazing daughter we have!!!

WE ARE SO PROUD OF OUR LITTLE GIRL!!!

A new beginning!

A wonderful one at that! Brent got a new job! We've been praying and waiting for this job for over 2 years now. He actually applied for this job back in October. After long wait and wondering when we would hear anything we got word in late January that he got the job. He started on Valentine's Day of all days. We thought it kind of funny ourselves. We are so thrilled for this job. It has so much potential for him, lots of room to move up in the company, an actual career versus just a job and SOOO much more time at home with us. Consider this, for the past two years plus Brent has been working at a job where he hit the perverbial ceiling after being with the company for only a few months, they had NO benefits at all, he worked so many hours that we hardly saw him and when he was home he was half asleep and to top it all off he barely made any money at it at all. NOW, he makes good money with tons of room to improve on that and quite soon actually, ALL the benefits we'd ever want and TONS of time at home to spend as a family. It's a very strange schedule that's for sure but it's all worth it. The rotating schedule consists of this... 4 night shifts, 3 days off, 3 day shifts, 1 day off, 3 night shifts, 3 days off, 4 day shifts, 7 days off. I told it it was strange, but if you count all that up, it's a 28 day schedule and he only works 14 of them, that means that half the time, he's all ours! It's going to take some getting used to and a little tinkering with how we work it, but we'll have it down in no time. Today was his first day working the night shift and we didn't do too bad. I think we figured it out quite well, just a few adjustments and we'll be doing great. We're looking forward to what this job will let us do and the new adventures we'll be able to have as a family.

THANK YOU GOD ABOVE FOR THIS WONDERFUL GIFT!!!

Sorry for the lapse in time!

I know I'm not the best blogger I could be but that's just my life talking. I am trying to keep up with things but blogging happens to be on the bottom of the list unfortunately. For some reason clean clothes and food to eat seem to take a front seat to this. Apparantly sending your children to school naked because you can't find any clean underwear and jeans isn't acceptable, and if you don't feed your children the government seems to think they can just come take them away. LOL Okay enough of my smartypants antics for now, we'll get back to that later.

I pleadge to try my best through all the crud in life to at least let you all know what's going on once a month. As for pictures, those will come as I can get to them. I have a HUGE list of them to post for you so it may take a while but I promise to try.

Life is WAY TOO short!!

This is a picture of some very good friends of mine. Terri is one of my best friends, she was my Matron of Honor at our wedding, next to her is her sweet husband Clint! I have known them for about 12 1/2 years now. Last night I got a call from Terri, Clint passed away on Friday evening. At first I was in such shock, then all I felt was numb as I sat and cried my eyes out. The world has lost such a great man, a loving husband and partner to Terri, all who spent time with them knows how much they were made for eachother! They say you pick your matron of honor by her marriage, someone who has a marriage like you want. I picked the perfect person, not only was she an awesome friend to me, but she and Clint were the greatest example of a loving, caring couple. Clint was one of the greatest men you could ever meet. He was so easy to get along with, so easy to love and always laughing. Clint would also do anything for you, he'd give you the shirt off his back if you needed it! Terri and Clint had been together for 23 years, married for 13 years, just celebrating their anniversary last week. Clint was only 41 years old.

Clint, you are so loved and will be greatly missed, you brought so mcuh into the lives of so many. I wish I had told you what a great person you were all these years I've known you, I'm sorry I didn't! We'll see you on the other side friend!

Terri, know that you are loved and cared for and that you will never be alone. You have been such a great person and been there for so many people in their time of need, now it's our turn to be there for you. We're praying for you and thinking of you constantly. Know that God is with you, carrying you through this time of sorrow! Your sweet Clint is watching over you from above, your guardian angel!

Updates in a nutshell!

Well the school year has ended and it's summertime at last! I love summer but wish it wasn't here already, mostly because our oldest, our son Kavin, left on June 4th to go live with his Grandma in Colorado. It was so hard to let him go but it's a good thing for him and his family, and we know that God will take care of him. We talk to him all the time and will get to see him as well. We love him so much and miss him like crazy. It's not the same around here without him, that's for sure. Not such a fun start to summer but we're taking it one day at a time.

Right now we are all so excited for our summer vacation. We are going to South Dakota, Brent's brother is getting married and we're so happy to get to see the family. We haven't seen any of his family, other than Aunt Donna who lives near my side of the family in WA, in over 6 1/2 years. We miss them all so much and can't wait for them all to meet the children. Boy are they going to be spoiled rotten while we're there.

We are also getting to see some friends that we haven't seen in a long time either. They are best friend's of ours and we were stationed together in NC. They are part of our Marine Corps family and it will be so nice to see them. We have children the same ages and it will be so nice for them to meet and play together for the first time. We can't wait!!

On the way home we are going to stop and see Kavin. I'm so glad that we get to do this, I just have to see that he's okay over there, even though I know he is. We are also going to get to take him some of his things that he couldn't take on the plane.

That's pretty much it for now but I will try to update more often now that it's summer and not so crazy. I will also try to get some pictures up as soon as possible. It may not be till after our trip but I will get it done.

New Additions!

We have 4 new additions to the family! We've started fostering cats for one of the local animal shelters. We decided to foster a cat that was expecting anyday. The little stinker decided to have her kittens overnight at the shelter before I could go pick her up. She had 3 babies, two pure white, one girl one boy and an orange boy. They are now two weeks old today and finally got names last week. The orange boy is O'Malley, the white boy is Squeekers and the little girl is Snowflake. We are having so much fun with them and the children love them! Mama's name is Patches and she's such a great Mum, very tentative and protective, at least she is with the dogs. LOL She's the sweetest little girl, and I do mean little, I can't imagine her having more babies than 3 and that's a small litter!

Basketball update!

They've had 2 games each now and doing quite well! I'm very proud to say that Kavin is wearing my old high school basketball number and he's doing so well, I even have video of him making a basket last Sat. He has such great teamwork skills and is on his way to a great season for himself! Ashlynne is so cute to watch, she loves playing and is doing well so far, still a lot to learn but considering it's her first time playing she's doing quite well. I know she'll catch on quickly just like she did with soccer!